unsigned long geek = random();

As part of my mail server rebuild (to be discussed in a future series of posts), I’ve been upgrading some of my mail system configuration files. One of them is fetchmail.conf, the configuration file for fetchmail, which I use to fetch mail from my mail server. It required a few changes after the upgrade to version 6.3.8 and a few changes in my environment.

A snippet from my updated configuration file:

        username user1 with password "pass1" is user1 here ssl fetchall
                sslfingerprint "BA:34:74:B6:7F:EF:A7:88:7C:7A:D1:8B:79:C5:10:D9"
                sslcertpath /etc/openssl/certs
                smtphost mail.relay.co.za
        username user2 with password "pass2" is user2 here ssl fetchall
                sslfingerprint "BA:34:74:B6:7F:EF:A7:88:7C:7A:D1:8B:79:C5:10:D9"
                sslcertpath /etc/openssl/certs
                smtphost mail.relay.co.za

Now, why on earth does one have to specify an SSL fingerprint, certificate path and mail server for each user? Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a global default and individual overrides where necessary? Chalk this up as another reason why I should move to getmail. Yes, I know I could add the functionality myself, but I really do need to move away from using an abomination before God to fetch my mail.

Note to self: this is the second “sucks” post in two days. Must remember to be more positive.